ALAWON: American Library Association Washington Office Newsline Volume 12, Number 2003 In This Issue: Action Needed! Please Call your Senators Sen Judd Gregg, chair of Senate HELP Committee intends to mark up his version of the Museum and Library Services Reauthorization, possibly as early as April 2, but certainly before April 9. His bill will be essentially the House bill with an authorization level of $216 million. We have asked the Committee staff for an amendment, and Senators Kennedy and Reed have agreed to offer one. The library amendment (please don't call it the Democratic amendment) would increase the authorization level to $240 million. We need at least 2 Republicans on the committee, and all the Democrats to vote for our amendment. If you come from a state with one of the following Senators, please call their office immediately and ask them to vote for the library amendment (to increase the authorization level to $240 million) in committee. If you don't come from one of these states, there is nothing you can do, at this time. Stay tuned. The Senators on the HELP Committee are: Judd Gregg, NH Bill Frist, TN Michael Enzi, WY Lamar Alexander, TN Kit Bond, MO Mike DeWine, OH Pat Roberts, KS Jeff Sessions, AL John Ensign, NV Lindsey Graham, SC John Warner, VA Edward Kennedy, MA Chris Dodd, CT Tom Harkin, IA Barbara Mikulski, MD Jeff Bingaman, NM Patty Murray, WA Jack Reed, RI John Edwards, NC Hilary Clinton, NY James Jeffords, VT We must keep all the Democrats' and Jefford's support and get 2 Republicans to support the library amendment. We have our best chance with DeWine, Graham, Bond & Sessions....but we need to try all....PLEASE call immediately. (Capitol Switchboard number is 202-224-3121) The library amendment would add $24 million to the first year's authorization level. We can only get this additional money if you all call these Senators and ask for their support. Tell them how important LSTA is to your institution ****** ALAWON (ISSN 1069-7799) is a free, irregular publication of the American Library Association Washington Office. All materials subject to copyright by the American Library Association may be reprinted or redistributed for noncommercial purposes with appropriate credits. To subscribe to ALAWON, send the message: subscribe ala-wo [your_firstname] [your_lastname] to listproc@ala.org or go to http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. To unsubscribe to ALAWON, send the message: unsubscribe ala-wo to listproc@ala.org. ALAWON archives at http://www.ala.org/washoff/alawon. ALA Washington Office, 1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 403, Washington, D.C. 20004-1701; phone: 202.628.8410 or 800.941.8478 toll-free; fax: 202.628.8419; e-mail: alawash@alawash.org; Web site: http://www.ala.org/washoff. Executive Director: Emily Sheketoff. Office of Government Relations: Lynne Bradley, Director; Camille Bowman, Mary Costabile, Don Essex, Patrice McDermott and Miriam Nisbet. Office for Information Technology Policy: Rick Weingarten, Director; Jennifer Hendrix, Carrie Russell, Claudette Tennant. ALAWON Editor: Bernadette Murphy.